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Concept
Authority (sociology)
Summary
In sociology, authority is the legitimate or socially approved power which one person or a group possesses and practices over another. The element of legitimacy is vital to the notion of authority and is the main means by which authority is distinguished from the more general concept of power.
Power can be exerted by the use of force or violence. Authority, by contrast, depends on the acceptance by subordinates of the right of those above them to give them orders or directives.
The types of political authority were first defined by Max Weber in his essay "Politics as a Vocation" and his other writings in 1919–1920. In this essay he emphasized that the political authority that controlled the state can be composed of the following types of authority, or what is called in German, Herrschaft.
Traditional authority: Power legitimized by respect for long-established cultural patterns.
Charismatic authority: Power legitimized by extraordinary personal abilities that inspire devotion and obedience.
Rational-legal authority: Also known as bureaucratic authority, is when power is legitimized by legally enacted rules or regulations.
Monopoly on violence
Max Weber, in his sociological and philosophical work, identified and distinguished three types of legitimate domination (Herrschaft in German, which generally means 'domination' or 'rule'), that have sometimes been rendered in English translation as types of authority, because domination is not seen as a political concept in the first place. Weber defined domination (authority) as the chance of commands being obeyed by a specifiable group of people. Legitimate authority is that which is recognized as legitimate and justified by both the ruler and the ruled. Legitimated rule results in what Weber called the monopoly over the use of coercive violence in a given territory. In the modern world, such authority is typically delegated to police and the court system.
Tripartite classification of authority and The Three Types of Legitimate Rule
Weber divided legitimate authority into three types:
The first type discussed by Weber is legal-rational authority.
Official source
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